


Heading Home

by Jadesfire



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-29
Updated: 2010-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-08 10:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadesfire/pseuds/Jadesfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Torchwood team make an unexpected stop on the way home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heading Home

**Author's Note:**

> Story for the [Moving Words and Pictures Challenge](http://cupidsbow.livejournal.com/260487.html). Inspired by [Hanging by a Moment](http://youtube.com/watch?v=AN16QTPNlZw) by [](http://fandom-me.livejournal.com/profile)[**fandom_me**](http://fandom-me.livejournal.com/)

  
It's a four hour drive back from Kent, but since Jack's reasonably sure that the county's not going to fall into the sea any more, and is very sure that Cardiff isn't – Ianto won't allow it – he decides that they can take their time heading home. After a long stop for lunch and an even longer one for dinner, he's left driving through the night with an SUV full of sleeping staff.

He had no fixed route in his mind, no intention of driving through London rather than round it, but his subconscious must have taken over at some point, reading the map that must be written on his soul. When he realises where they are, he hesitates for a moment, then parks the car and just sits, looking up at the building looming out of the darkness. In the yellow glow of the street lights, it's hard to tell that it was once a grand, red-brick edifice, imposing and impressive. It seems that he's only ever destined to see it by night.

Gently pulling his coat out from under the seat, Jack opens the door as carefully as he can, trying not to wake the others. Tosh and Owen are crashed out in mirror image poses in the back, leaning with their heads lolling against the windows. Somehow, Gwen has managed to curl up on the front passenger seat, twisting in a way that Jack's not sure is physically possible. They all look younger asleep, peaceful for a change, after the insanity of the past few weeks. Not that it's actually been busier than normal.

The door closes behind him with a soft click, and Jack shrugs into his coat, fastening the buttons against the cold. At least it's not raining, which is appropriate. It hadn't been raining that night, either. Automatically checking for traffic on the empty street, he crosses to stand by the imposing gates, reading the words on the iron archway.

Albion Hospital.

He shivers. Even during the 'alien invasion' a few years back, he stayed away from this place. Who knew what it would have done to the timeline if he'd shown up and bumped into the Doctor. That's a good excuse. Logical, sensible and with just the right hint of righteous innocence.

"What are you doing? It's freezing out here."

He turns at the sound of the voice, startled out of his thoughts. "Gwen?"

"No, it's the Tooth Fairy." She's shivering as she comes to stand next to him, peering up at the hospital with a curious expression on her face. "Or maybe the Ghost of Christmas Past, looking at this place. Where are we?"

"The Albion Hospital, East End of London." He holds out an arm and she shifts closer, huddling up for warmth.

"Okay. Any particular reason or you just liked the look of it?" When Jack doesn't answer right away, she turns her head to try and look at him, her face strangely pale in the yellow light. "Jack? Please tell me we're not actually here for a ghost."

"No." He manages to laugh, hugging her closer. "No ghosts, I promise."

"Then what-"

"Just…" What's he supposed to say? 'Revisting the scene of the crime' cuts a little too close to the truth, and anything about it being his 'old stomping ground' is so corny that even Gwen's not going to buy it. He settles for, "Thinking about an old friend."

"Old? Or new again?"

He blinks, having forgotten for a moment that he has fewer secrets now, that not only is the Doctor common knowledge at Torchwood, but his team aren't blind or stupid and are much less inclined to put up with cryptic remarks than they used to be. That's not going to stop him trying, though.

"Old," he says firmly. Because although they're the same man, they're two different men, and Jack's not even so sure about himself anymore.

"Oh." Drawing close enough to practically be inside the coat with him, Gwen sniffs. "How long ago?"

"Sixty years, more or less. Wartime." Sixty years, or a couple of centuries, depending on what perspective you chose. For now, he'll stick with the one that requires the least explanation. "I was careless, thoughtless really. Nearly got a lot of people killed."

"What happened?"

He shakes his head, not wanting to go down that path just yet. Maybe one day, he'll be able to, right from a girl on a barrage balloon to a space station somewhere in the future, but the pain's still too newly-healed, and he's cautious about reopening the wound just yet. It's only when she elbows him gently in the ribs that he realises he hasn't answered Gwen's question. She's looking up at him, cheeks and nose reddened by the cold, and her eyes wide with curiosity. For all that she's changed, he's glad that some things have stayed the same.

"It all turned out alright in the end," he says, with a lightness that surprises him. "That happens, sometimes."

"That's good to hear." She grins, then yawns hugely, shuddering against him.

"Come on." He half-drags her to the car, not looking at the building again until they're back inside, his coat under his seat again, and Owen mumbling something about inconsiderate employers who decide to make random stops in the middle of the night.

The hospital looks both alien and familiar now, like something Jack had known and forgotten, a long time ago. Starting the car, he pulls away, watching the building disappear in the rearview mirror. It should probably feel symbolic, leaving that part of himself behind. Instead, he's more concerned about not waking the others as he drives over the road humps. He's lived that past, twice, and learned that thinking about things in terms of relative time doesn't really work for him anymore. It's harder to feel nostalgic about things, when you've seen them from both directions. There is today, there was yesterday and there will be tomorrow. It's a sequence of events that he's going to be stuck with, for the foreseeable future at least.

He spares a glance at his wrist comp, telling himself he's just checking the time. It still surprises him a little, the choice he made, putting himself back on the slow path. From behind him, he hears Tosh thump Owen back into silence and Gwen sniffs again, trying to contort herself back into her previous, apparently comfortable position. She's never going to be able to walk once they get home.

Home.

He takes a moment to turn the word over in his mind. It isn't supposed to be this, not some backward time period or this soggy little country. It should be a dimensionally confused blue box, with the whole of time and space at his disposal. But somewhere along the line, in all that waiting and hoping and wishing, he'd managed to miss everything he already had.

He doesn't intend to make that mistake again.


End file.
